By Raha Azad
Beheshta* is still in her dazzling wedding attire, but her face is forlorn.
A Taliban raid on her wedding day in northern Badakhshan province has left her devastated – and her brother in jail.
“There is no difference between a wedding and a funeral. Worse than that, the most important and joyful day of life turns into the worst memory,” Beheshta said.
Armed Talibs stormed her home, and arrested and imprisoned her brother for playing music during the wedding celebration only days ago.
On 11 June 2023, the Taliban’s Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice officially banned music at wedding halls.
Before then, the practice had been verbally indicated to hotel owners, but the directive made it official. Its enforcement varies across Afghanistan. In some provinces, people are permitted to play music on the occasion of a wedding. In others, no music is permitted, and some say their local Taliban members have turned this ban into a means of extortion.
Marwa*, Beheshta’s younger sister, says that during the raid, Taliban members entered the women’s section without warning while some women were not wearing headscarves. This is a strictly prohibited act.
“About half an hour had passed since the guests began eating food when armed Taliban members entered the house with terror. Their arrival was so sudden that everyone was frightened,” Marwa said.
“My brother rushed towards the music speaker to turn it off. But the Islamic Emirate [Taliban] forces prevented him from doing so. In that moment he was stopped by the armed men. It was a scene of horror, and everyone was terrified.”
Marwa said she managed to take the music speaker and removed it from the house through another exit, while two armed Talibs searched the house to find it.
The women at the wedding were terrified because of their party dresses.
“The women were trying to find a place to take shelter and hide from the sight of those two Taliban,” Marwa said.
Immediately after seizing power in August 2021, strict approaches towards music were reported in some parts of the country, ranging from burning musical instruments and confiscating USB drives with music files from vehicles to prohibiting the media from broadcasting music.
According to the Taliban, listening to music is a sin.
“Is this a wedding or a brothel that music like this is playing? Look at this situation. Repent, O God!” Marwa said the Taliban forces in the house said upon entering.
Their guests were insulted with demeaning remarks alluding to them attending a brothel.
Then, the armed men took Beheshta and Marwa’s brother away.
“I fainted because I never imagined my wedding would turn out like this,” Beheshta said. “We had celebrated my engagement during the Republic era and it was wonderful. Everything was very good.”
The Taliban has since released Beheshta’s brother from custody after a two-day ordeal that saw his body covered in bruises..
Both sisters allege that he had been mistreated and beaten while detained.
The Taliban had taken a forced commitment from him that there would never again be music played at their home.
But Beheshta said that the Taliban does not enforce its standards even handedly.
She said that one of her neighbors recently had a wedding where music was freely played without trouble.
Beheshta said she had asked the family how they did it and they replied that the bride’s father paid 20,000 afghanis (around $300) to the local Taliban forces for music and dancing to be permitted.
Faizabad resident Jawira*, 23, said that her wedding ceremony took place last summer. Despite the music ban, her family decided to celebrate the occasion with music and dancing. But they paid a heavy price.
Around 8PM on her wedding day, Taliban forces raided her wedding ceremony with several vehicles. Like Bereshta, the armed men forcefully entered the women’s section despite her husband’s attempt to stop them.
Jawira said the Taliban responded to her husband’s protests with the hard butt of the rifle and declared the wedding over, saying that a wedding involving music and “the devil’s voice” should not exist.
The Taliban detained Jawira’s husband, brother, and father for three days.
“My husband had many bruises on his body [when he returned] because they had beaten him severely. Every time he talked back to them or stood up to them, they hit his face and stomach with kicks and punches,” Jawira said.
“My husband still hasn’t forgotten the injuries from his Taliban torture,” she added.
Badakhshan was once renowned for its local music. Before the Taliban, music and songs were an inseparable part of gatherings for its residents.
Another newlywed bride in the province, who had her wedding ceremony in spring, said that her family decided to hold the wedding without music and songs due to fear of the Taliban.
“I have told my brothers not to have any weddings during this Taliban period because you wouldn’t enjoy the wedding celebrations at all,” she said.
Note*: Names and locations have been withheld at personal request of interviewees for security reasons.
